W MICHIGAN: Western Michigan has made slight improvements over the last two years, but now it's time for head coach Bill Cubit to lead them to a MAC Championship. They return a solid number of players on both sides of the ball including star QB Alex Carder (3,873 pass yds, 31 TD). Carder could be the best player in his conference and thrives under pressure, having better road statistics than he did at home. He's losing a lot of his weapons on offense, but WR Josh Schaffer (241 rec yds, 2 TD) is looking to emerge as a playmaker this coming season. The Broncos defense has caused Cubit to take a lot of heat, so they must improve on that side of the ball. They're getting back two of their biggest playmakers in S Johnnie Simon (114 tackles) and DE Freddie Bishop (5.5 sacks). Outside of these two, the play has been very inconsistent for this Western Michigan team. If this team wants to be part of the MAC's elite, they must be able to stop the pass; something they struggled doing in 2011.

BALL ST: The Cardinals are looking to break out of their three-year streak of winning only six games and this could be the year they do that. QB Keith Wenning (2,786 pass yds, 19 TD) is back and looking to improve on a year in which he showed glimpses of how good he can be, but also made tons of errant passes (12 INT). RB Jahwan Edwards (786 rush yds, 11 TD) is also looking to avoid a sophomore slump after a brilliant freshman campaign. Ball State could also have one of the best offensive lines in the country. They return most of their starters from a unit that allowed only 11 sacks last season. The defense is in a very troubling position, as it wasn't a capable bunch last season and returns only four of those starters. A lot of young players are going to need to contribute for this team to win seven or more games.